The present invention relates generally to telecommunication networks and more particularly to the Internet and Internet services.
Currently, telecommunication companies provide advanced intelligent network (AIN) services. AIN service subscribers are demanding a variety of more flexible and faster ways of making changes to their AIN services. AIN service subscribers also seek to have more control over their services. The currently deployed AIN service control infrastructure is meeting these demands to varying degrees. The flexible service creation environment of Bellcore's proprietary SPACE.RTM. application allows network operators to quickly and economically implement and deploy new services. In general, once an AIN service is deployed on the network, AIN service subscribers can make modifications through two service control channels: a live service representative or an interactive voice response (IVR) system.
In the live service representative service channel, the AIN subscriber calls the company's customer support center and describes the service modifications over the telephone to the service representative. The service representative then manually enters the service modifications into the service negotiation system (SNS), which propagates the requested changes in the network.
Alternatively, the AIN subscriber can call a self-service IVR center and specify the requested service changes via interactions with an intelligent peripheral (IP). The IP uses IVR technology to play voice prompts, announcements, and menus, as well as to collect the AIN subscriber's input. Most often, the AIN subscriber will enter service modification information via the DTMF keypad of the telephone. If the IP is equipped with a speech recognition module, the AIN subscriber can also enter service changes orally. Such voice recognition modules are rarely used in practice, however, because they are not effective.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional telephone access AIN service control system. As shown in FIG. 1, the AIN subscriber 101 uses a telephone to access either an IP 103 or a service representative 107 through SSP 102 to make changes to service. Both the IP 103 and the service representative 107 are contacted by the AIN subscriber 101 over voice lines through the SSP 102, over a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 110. When service changes are made through the IP 103, they are transmitted to the integrated services control point (ISCP)/node 104.
When service changes are made through the service representative 107, the AIN subscriber 101 details the changes to the service representative 107 who manually enters them through the service negotiation system (SNS) 108. The SNS 108 forwards the requested changes over a dataline to service activation controller (SAC) 106. The advanced services management system (ASMS) 109 is Bellcore's implementation of a service activation controller network component. Depending on the scope of the service changes requested by the AIN subscriber 101, the SAC 106 issues the change requests to SPACE application 105 and/or to AIN switch trigger/event data stored in the SSP 102. A workstation 111 is connected to SPACE application 105 through which service changes can be directly implemented.
The service control channels described above and shown in FIG. 1 have several limitations and disadvantages. The live service representative channel is very costly to the service provider because the expense of maintaining an adequate number of trained service representatives can be great. Additionally, users of certain AIN services, such as call routing, may need to make changes to their service many times a day. The cost of employing a sufficient number of service representative to handle the volume of calls for such a service can also be great. Additionally, voice based interactions limit the amount of data that the AIN service subscribers can specify while requesting service modifications. This consideration becomes important with AIN services that involve a large amount of customizable data, such as the Centrex Extent service for business customers.
The telephone based self-service channel has limitations as well. While such a channel does not have the costs associated with a live service representative channel, it is subject to even greater limitations on the amount of data that can be transmitted between the service subscriber and the network. In practice, telephone users find it difficult to navigate through more than three levels of voice menus and enter more than several DTMF data strings per session. In addition, certain types of data are very difficult to specify via a DTMF keypad, such as modifying a routing schedule for a service involving time of day or day of week routing. Thus, while a telephone self-service channel is more economical than a live service representative channel, it can only be used efficiently to control certain types of services involving limited amounts of data.
Due to the limitations of the existing service control channels, there is a need for a ubiquitous, user-friendly, cost effective, and flexible AIN service control channel and method. The present invention utilizes the Internet to provide such a control channel to AIN subscribers.
The recent explosion in the use of the Internet host provided many new business opportunities and presents significant opportunities to providers of traditional network services. The number of Internet users is growing exponentially, stimulating network service providers to create new services to capture this new market. It is estimated that by 1999, 14 million households will subscribe to Internet access services. This number, however, reflects only a portion of the total number of Internet users because many people have access to the Internet through their school or place of employment. In fact, the current number of Internet users is estimated to be 30 million. The debut of the Microsoft Network service with full Internet access and the addition of Internet access to online services such as Prodigy, CompuServe, and America Online are expected to bring even more potential customers online. It is projected that use of the Internet will continue to rise and therefore it is desired to provide customer services to Internet users.
One successful and widely publicized portion of the Internet is the World Wide Web (WWW or the Web). Once connected to the WWW, a user utilizes a browser to display "home pages"--graphical representations of information stored on WWW servers connected to the Internet.
Many companies have home pages that allow Internet users to get information regarding the companies. However, most corporate home pages are still in their infancy and most provide only generic, non-customer specific information. Additionally, most corporate home pages do not permit customers to make queries or to make changes to their service. Adding this capability would create a more personalized and dynamic exchange with an existing or potential customer. Interactions could be custom tailored and product advertisements could be made user-specific based on customer profiles or other data stored in corporate databases.
It is therefore desirable to provide Internet based control of AIN services that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
It is also desirable to enable users to change or update their AIN services by directly accessing, through the Internet, the switches through which such changes are made.
It is also desirable to enable Web interface users to change and/or update their AIN services and data.
Additionally, it is desirable to provide a Web interface capable of supporting the exchange of large amounts of data between AIN subscribers and a network.
Moreover, it is desirable to allow AIN subscribers to see all changes on their computer screen, and provide a mechanism for changes to AIN services to be made very quickly and efficiently.
Finally, it is desirable to provide architecture for supporting Internet based support of AIN services.
Additional objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the written description and appended claims and drawings.